Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, says the EU is ready to support Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's stated objective for an inclusive approach toward the Ukrainian citizens living in the occupied areas in eastern Ukraine.
Mogherini received Zelensky in Brussels on Wednesday, June 5, within the Ukrainian president's first visit abroad since taking office, the European External Action press service said.
She congratulated Zelensky on his election victory and underlined that the EU continues to stand by Ukraine, supporting the country on its reform agenda and with respect to its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The high representative and the president discussed the possible way forward with the full implementation of the Minsk agreements by all sides, while recalling the responsibility of Russia in this regard.
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They rejected the recent Russian decrees entitling, inter alia, people who permanently reside in certain areas of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as residents of the Crimean peninsula before 2014, to apply for Russian citizenship in a simplified manner.
"Federica Mogherini stressed that the European Union is ready to support the Minsk implementation with all available means. This can include the EU's help in support of President Zelenskyy's stated objective for an inclusive approach towards the Ukrainian citizens living in the non-government controlled areas in eastern Ukraine," the report says.
As UNIAN reported earlier, during his inaugural address to the Verkhovna Rada, President Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized that the Russian-occupied Crimea and certain areas of Donbas are all Ukrainian lands, and that it is necessary to win back the minds of Ukrainians from the occupied territories. He stated that the Ukrainian government since the occupation had done nothing to make people in the occupied territories feel Ukrainians.
On June 5, OSCE chief's envoy Martin Sajdik said that the Tripartite Contact Group on the Donbas settlement at its next meeting would consider lifting the economic blockade off the occupied Donbas, on the proposal of Ukraine representative Leonid Kuchma who recently resumed his work in the TCG.
